A truly global forum

[Juan Gonzalez]

Over the last few months I've seen the readership of the Global Culture Blog grow an average of 50% every month. Readers from 3350 cities around the world seem to care about the notion of a Global Culture but up until now there wasn't a space for such community to exchange their ideas. Rather than limiting the participation to a few comments per post, I figured this space will allow the debate to be shaped by the community. To get the discussion started it may be interesting to know why do you care about a Global Culture?

[Paul Dougherty]

Local society is no longer limited to distant travelers bringing news from other countries. The information that the Internet brings to everyday people has never been greater. Globalization, in my limited knowledge, cannot be prevented until a massive shift of consciousness away from materialism occurs. This is probably equally as unlikely.

I care about Global Culture because I fear that if societies do not come together at the people level, corporations will continue to take control and leave us with little or no options. I am interested in looking at what is happening in the world and hearing/discussing it with others.

Cheers,

Paul

[Globalistgirl]

My answer is pretty simple: it's the only culture I have real legitimacy in claiming to belong to. I'm a TCK, and the third culture is the only one I feel completely at home in. The notion of a global culture is almost synonymous with the third culture, since we all enter the third culture from a great variety of specific cultures and end up much in the same place after all.

[Zina Lee]

DO we end up in the same culture? What are the definitions of this "Global Culture"? What are its hallmarks, its bookends, how do we look at someone and say, ah, you're a global citizen. Do we need to define it? Can we actually discuss it with any real impact if we "just know it when we see it"? Isn't it possible that one person talking to another person about "global culture" may have a totally different idea of what "global culture" means? Is it possible to come up with a definition of a "global citizen", or do we just mean someone who blends different characteristics of this culture, that culture, and that one over there, that one, too?

[Globalistgirl]

Good questions. I don't think any of us know quite yet. I'm hoping that if as many people as possible talk about it, maybe we can start building some answers. For example, whether people have different things in mind when they say "global culture" would come up. I'm sure sooner or later, even if most people (at least here) agree on the concept, there will be someone with a different idea. That gives us the opportunity to see different views and try to decide what the best definition is. Perhaps global culture is something emergent, or perhaps there can be many ways of belonging to a global culture, like there can be many ways to be cosmopolitan.

When it comes to being a global citizen, I'd suggest that a global citizen is someone who has their primary identity allegiance to the world as a whole, not a subset of nations or ethnic groups. I thought about this while writing my honors project on TCKs, and came up with a first draft, if you will, of what it means to be a global citizen, building on other's thoughts. It's on my website, at the very bottom of the "TCKs and Global Nomads" page. I think the gist of it is in a quote from Adler saying that "multicultural man" [sic], which I rephrase as global citizens, have identities that are based “not on a ‘belongingness,’ which implies either owning or being owned by the culture, but on a style of self-consciousness that is capable of negotiating ever new formations of reality.” (Adler, P. (1974). Beyond Cultural Identity: Reflections on Cultural and Multicultural man. In R. Brislin (Ed.), Topics in Culture Learning (Vol 2). Honolulu, HI: East-West Center, p. 25; in Schaetti, B. F. (2001). Global Nomad Identity: Hypothesizing a Developmental Model (Doctoral dissertation, The Union Institute, 2001.) Dissertation Abstracts, 9992721)

[Paul Dougherty]

"multicultural man" [sic], which I rephrase as global citizens, have identities that are based “not on a ‘belongingness,’ which implies either owning or being owned by the culture, but on a style of self-consciousness that is capable of negotiating ever new formations of reality.”

This is a great quote or paraphrase and post. Very well said. I also believe this quote goes beyond culture and extends to harmony with existence itself. After all, it will be pretty difficult to enjoy any culture, global or otherwise, if we do not learn to protect all life and end up destroying the planet we inhabit.